I joined the NEU parents Facebook page, and see lots of discussion about the two summer terms. I don’t remember any discussion of that in our admissions presentation, and now I have questions.
Does everyone do summer term? Most people? Is it more prevalent in certain majors? Is it only if you are trying to get through in 4 years? How does this work with merit aid, when the aid is designated by semester after the first year?
What’s the story?
Most students will do two Summer sessions. You normally take 8 credits each session so it is equivalent to half a semester. If you received need or merit aid then you would get half the semester allotment for a Summer Session.
Coop periods run from January to June or July to December. Here are sample patterns of attendance:
https://registrar.northeastern.edu/app/uploads/ref-udc-poa-ugd.pdf
Bouvé majors have special variations as noted in the table.
While it may be possible to avoid doing a Summer Session it would require careful planning. Many new students are wary about doing a summer session but once they get in the flow of things it is not a problem.
Many students also take advantage of summer travel classes called Dialogues of Civilizations which are in various majors and travel to various countries. These take place in either summer 1 or 2 and count as two classes, half semester. FA and scholarships count as half semester as TomSr mentioned too. NEU splits the summer in two sessions since it fits in the coop schedule too.
I’d say though that it depends on the major of you take classes. both of my Ds have only done DOCs in Summer but never summer classes. It seems that many NUIN kids do summer 1 or 2 classes in their first summer to get in sync with Fall admits in certain majors so they start year two in alignment. Spring semester ends in Late April at NEU so otherwise summer is very long (4 months) compared to most schools.
As mentioned, it’s pretty common. In my experience most do at least one, some two, usually no more than that. People often reduce this by having incoming credit that takes off a half-semester or more of classes, though some also take them still for timing.
Because of both people in co-op and the common nature of summer courses there tend to be decent offerings and the campus has a good deal of people still. It’s easier to find the classes you prefer the earlier you do the summer sessions since high-level electives are unlikely to be offered.
During the years when my daughter had co-ops she spent the other half of the summer on campus taking classes. That let her graduate in 4 years with 2 - six month co-ops. She actually loved summers on campus (it is hot but you can usually get dorms with AC during the summer). The campus is lovely, they have outside events on the quad every week, Boston is hopping, you only have 2 classes to worry about (instead of 4-5), and she had no classes on Friday (something she didn’t have during fall and spring semesters.)
if you do 2 coop, still do we need to pay tuition fees for those two six months?
i don’t know how it works… please explain me …
@Nitmom You only pay tuition for academic terms. All students complete 8 academic semesters just like at any other university (or fewer depending on AP credits).
Thank you , TomSrofBoston,
Looklike we will end up of paying four year tuition…MMM. i am just thinking of saving on some tuition if there is way if we can. LOL. I appreciate any suggestions…
@Nitmom Northeastern is very generous with AP Credit. My kid got 7 courses shaved off (29 credits)- so is able to graduate in 6 academic semesters (with a Dialogue in Summer 1 and 1 Coop). Many friends in honors had even more AP credits.
The Dialogues are AMAZING and a fantastic way to get in 2 courses. Life changing for many kids!
Thank you suzyQ7, it sounds cool. I checked NEU AP credit policy, it is generous. My daughter has total 9 APs, Hopefully she will get 32 max credit for computer science.But, I don’t understand Dialogue and how it works…i will explore in their website. It looks like NEU is good choice.Thank you for the guidance.
A Dialogue is a 5/6 week trip with about 15 students and a professor and usually a TA. There are dozens of locations and themes. You travel and study and at the end of the trip earn 8 credits (2 courses). There are exams and/or papers you have to do to get grades and pass, but it’s pretty low key. It’s a fantastic program!
Dialogue is a summer program where you go somewhere (usually internationally - they have done some US service ones) for something like 4-6 weeks and get credit for two classes. The group is only NEU students and the chaperones/teachers are NEU faculty. They are typically designed to meet requirements for a specific major (so I randomly clicked on a Rome one and you would be taking two Sociology classes on that one). They do charge summer term tuition plus room, board, transportation, etc. There are some financial aid and scholarship opportunities to help supplement this cost.
Students like to do this for a summer term because it breaks up the pattern (getting out of Boston) and many typical study abroad programs don’t fit well with the NEU school calendar (although they do have some and some kids do them)
https://www.northeastern.edu/geo/dialogue/ has all this information.
Sounds interesting, my daughter loves these kind of trips.Thank you SuzyQ7 and kiddie for explanation about Dialogue @ NEU.
@suzyQ7 @PengsPhils @TomSrOfBoston or any other knowledgeable NEU posters: question on AP.
On the NEU site it shows AP AB and AP BC Calc equal credit for MATH1341 & MATH1342 (Calculus 1 & Calculus 2 for Science and Engineering) Anyone know if NEU lets students use AP AB Calc (Or MATH1341) in place of the MATH1231 that is required for D’AmoreMcKim students? Or do you just get to claim credit for MATH1341 & MATH1342 in place of electives and still have to take MATH1231?
Thanks in advance!
Just wanted to add that if your student has been awarded merit scholarships, those also apply to dialogue (1/2 semester of merit applies).
@ suzyQ7 , your information is much appreciated.Thank you